August 25 in History

Historical Events on August 25

357

Battle of Strasbourg: Julian, Caesar (deputy emperor) and supreme commander of the Roman army in Gaul, wins an important victory against the Alemanni at Strasbourg (Argentoratum).
766

Emperor Constantine V humiliates nineteen high-ranking officials, after discovering a plot against him. He executes the leaders, Constantine Podopagouros and his brother Strategios.
1248

The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht.
1258

Regent George Mouzalon and his brothers are killed during a coup headed by the aristocratic faction under, paving the way for its leader, Michael VIII Palaiologos, to ultimately usurp the throne of the Empire of Nicaea.
1270

King Louis IX of France dies in Tunis while on the Eighth Crusade.
1537

The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
1543

António Mota and a few companions become the first Europeans to visit Japan.
1580

Battle of Alcântara. Spain defeats Portugal.
1609

Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1630

Portuguese forces are defeated by the Kingdom of Kandy at the Battle of Randeniwela in Sri Lanka.
1758

Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1814

War of 1812: On the second day of the Burning of Washington, British troops torch the Library of Congress, United States Treasury, Department of War, and other public buildings.
1823

American fur trapper Hugh Glass is mauled by a grizzly bear while on an expedition in South Dakota.
1825

Uruguay declares its independence from Brazil.
1830

The Belgian Revolution begins.
1835

The first Great Moon Hoax article is published in The New York Sun, announcing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon.
1875

Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.
1883

France and Viet Nam sign the Treaty of Huế, recognizing a French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin.
1894

Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
1898

Seven hundred Greek civilians, 17 British guards and the British Consul of Crete are killed by a Turkish mob in Heraklion, Greece.
1914

World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts are lost.
1916

The United States National Park Service is created.
1920

Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends with the Red Army's defeat.
1933

The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people.
1939

The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power.
1940

World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force.
1942

World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons; a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack.
1944

World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
1945

Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1948

The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
1950

President Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
1961

President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964.
1967

George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group.
1980

Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.
1981

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn.
1989

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the second to last planet in the Solar System at the time.
1991

Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union.
1991

The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence).
1991

Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.
1997

Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall.
2001

American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas.
2006

Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion.
2012

Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.
2017

Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004. The storm causes catastrophic flooding throughout much of eastern Texas, killing 90 people and causing $198.6 billion in damage.

August 25 Birthdays

August 25 Deaths

Choose Another Date